To Compost Or Not To Compost, That Is The Question!

Reader Contribution by Jane Gripper
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It has become somewhat of a ritual for me to clean out my 83 year old mother’s fridge after Christmas. While my mother often reminds me “I haven’t lost my marbles yet”, she is only partially sighted, has dodgy hips, and is quite understandably, incapable of cleaning the fridge out. As a result, whiskery gnarled morsels, shoved to the back of the fridge many months previously, may remain there, unseen, and untouched by my mother’s arthritic hands.

To complicate matters, my mother shares the fridge space with some of her itinerant offspring, who well meaningly bring bunches of fresh asparagus or arugula, left over tidbits, exotic dips, or some homemade chilli tomato sauce that they are sure she would love. Sadly, these offerings remain in the fridge until I clean them out after Christmas.

Cleaning the fridge out should be so easy right? Just get out a triple strength plastic garbage bag, and sweep the fetid cargo from each shelf, but I have this sometimes very annoying green conscience that says, “this should be a zero waste activity Jane.”

Grrrr, how irritating! So, with my bare hands, I start on the great fridge clean out. Reaching into mystery plastic bags, I relieve them of the slimy asparagus and arugula, drizzle it straight into the compost bucket. Now, what to do with the jar labelled “Sue’s Mango Guava chutney. May 2000 “? The jar has a dangerously bulging lid and furry growths looking like some ancient Precambrian era landscape!

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